HIGHLIGHTS

HIGHLIGHTS

Joshi tweeted about being bullied by teacher.

The tweet thread got ample response from Twitterati.

Others came forward to share their experiences.

If you read things on social media, you must've come across the story of New York's Daniel Fitzpatrick: the 13-year-old who hanged himself because he could no longer bear the relentless bullying he was being subjected to at school. In Daniel's case, it was his fellow classmates who torment

If you read things on social media, you must've come across the story of New York's Daniel Fitzpatrick: the 13-year-old who hanged himself because he could no longer bear the relentless bullying he was being subjected to at school.

In Daniel's case, it was his fellow classmates who tormented him; young boys who probably did not understand what harm they were doing. But there are times when children face such mental abuse at the hands of teachers.

Yesterday, we also shared a disturbing story about Sushant Rohilla, a third year student of Amity Law School, IP University, who decided to hang himself and end his life, after his college denied permission to give exams showing low attendance as a reason.

This tweet was only the lid that tipped to open a jar of worms. In a stream of tweets, Joshi went on to tell the story of the mental abuse he faced at the hands of this teacher.

"In my 2nd semester of engineering, I had an Engineering Drawing teacher who was a complete bastard and a turd of a human being," writes the comedian, known for his association with the comedy group, All India Bakchod.

Here's what he shared:

"For whatever reason, he decided he just didn't like me. In an Indian college, this is pretty much a death sentence in the concerned subject.

He made me redo one particular assignment 20 times, I went to college four times during our scheduled study leave just to submit.

It got to a point where I'd be weeping in my room over the assignment and my mum would come in and draw for a bit, late at night

I couldn't tell if I was imagining the prejudice, so I borrowed a friend's assignment, which the teacher had graded with a perfect score

I got a gigantic piece of tracing paper and over several hours, traced his assignment out exactly. Submitted the next day. FAILED. "Redo."

Luckily I overheard him grumbling to his assistant about how he had to leave town the next day for a family thing. So I waited.

Two days later I went back to college and went to the HoD. Said "this teacher was supposed to correct my assignment but he's left town"

The HoD took my assignment, gave it a near perfect score and sent me on my way. I cried in the train, the whole way back."

Drove him to drop out

Joshi then writes, "There were a hundred factors I considered before I dropped out of college in the next semester, but this a*****e was a key factor."

"I start shaking even today, just thinking about it. The humiliation, the helplessness. And the rage that follows."

His confession echos the fear that many students, par age group, bear in them because of bullying they face at the hands of teachers. While parents often go uninformed, or wave off such treatment from teachers as 'tough love', children suffer in silence.

"I literally never went back to that college. I'd get anxiety attacks at the gate. I skipped the entire next term, voluntarily flunked out," adds Joshi.

How to fight this terrorising (read bullying) attitude?

As scores of followers respond to Joshi's tweet with their own terrifying stories, he writes, "If you're a student and you're going through anything even remotely similar to this, please talk to someone. Because this is abuse."

"And it took me entirely too long to recognise that. We brush it off as "tough love teaching methods" but it's not. It's soul-crushing," he adds.

The strongest help a victim of such mental abuse can have is supportive families. If parents and families stay involved in their childrens' lives, such treatments wouldn't probably go unnoticed.

"Also, the only reason I can stand here and talk about it today is because I had a support system that told me it was okay to fail," Joshi tweets.

"I recognise that. So if you have a friend, relative, kid, whatever, know that this COULD be what they're dealing with. Be there for em."

Bullying and mental abuse at academic institutions is one of the leading causes for teenage suicides. And it's not a distant land's problem. It happens in India, it's happening now.

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